Why Everything You Know About Bluegill Management is Wrong---INTERESTING ARTICLE BRINGS UP MANY GOOD POINTS - Bluegill - Big Bluegill2024-03-29T00:53:22Zhttps://bigbluegill.ning.com/forum/topics/why-everything-you-know-about-bluegill-management-is-wrong?id=2036984%3ATopic%3A646586&feed=yes&xn_auth=noI keep gills no less than 7 i…tag:bigbluegill.ning.com,2019-01-03:2036984:Comment:7720912019-01-03T23:08:31.538ZBruce Tomasellihttps://bigbluegill.ning.com/profile/BruceTomaselli
<p>I keep gills no less than 7 inches. The lakes I fish are large and I really don't think they can be fished out because I really don't know of very many anglers that target gills for eating. Almost exclusively anglers around here covet crappies more than anything. I don't fill coolers myself and only take enough for a meal.</p>
<p>I keep gills no less than 7 inches. The lakes I fish are large and I really don't think they can be fished out because I really don't know of very many anglers that target gills for eating. Almost exclusively anglers around here covet crappies more than anything. I don't fill coolers myself and only take enough for a meal.</p> my self imposed limit in the…tag:bigbluegill.ning.com,2019-01-03:2036984:Comment:7719382019-01-03T22:13:37.998Ztracy willishttps://bigbluegill.ning.com/profile/tracywillis
<p>my self imposed limit in the waters i fish is 7-8” with a few 6” for whole frying. off spawning season i will keep a few females as well. i only keep what i can eat in a meal or two. no loading of coolers or freezers with them. these are mid length fish that are very abundant in my lake and the large mouth bass takes care of any overpopulation issues.</p>
<p>the problem with bluegill is that it takes double the amount of time to maturity than it does other sunfish/panfish, on average 1”…</p>
<p>my self imposed limit in the waters i fish is 7-8” with a few 6” for whole frying. off spawning season i will keep a few females as well. i only keep what i can eat in a meal or two. no loading of coolers or freezers with them. these are mid length fish that are very abundant in my lake and the large mouth bass takes care of any overpopulation issues.</p>
<p>the problem with bluegill is that it takes double the amount of time to maturity than it does other sunfish/panfish, on average 1” per year. hammer a small lake enough and remove the larger fish then i can take years for it to rebound.</p>
<p>also if you are fishing every day in the same spots you may want to crimp the barb down on the hook so it does less damage. there is research that suggests hooked fish will deter eating for several days after being hooked.</p> Hi Matt. Great article. I am…tag:bigbluegill.ning.com,2019-01-03:2036984:Comment:7713752019-01-03T01:26:00.803ZGreg Hodnetthttps://bigbluegill.ning.com/profile/GregHodnett
<p>Hi Matt. Great article. I am new to Big Bluegill, and I have been fly fishing for nine months. I have been less than a "weekend warrior" for most of my life, with some years drawing a total blank, as far as any fishing at all. I am retired now. I fish nearly every day, even when it's too cold for the fish to come and dine!</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">To The Point</span>: I am wondering about the Bluegill population in our retention pond. They run somewhat bigger than the…</p>
<p>Hi Matt. Great article. I am new to Big Bluegill, and I have been fly fishing for nine months. I have been less than a "weekend warrior" for most of my life, with some years drawing a total blank, as far as any fishing at all. I am retired now. I fish nearly every day, even when it's too cold for the fish to come and dine!</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">To The Point</span>: I am wondering about the Bluegill population in our retention pond. They run somewhat bigger than the ones we catch at Eagle Creek Reservoir. Also, the Bluegills at Lilly Pond inside the Eagle Creek Park in Indianapolis run extremely small. My "wonderings" concern fishing pressure and how it may have contributed to these differences in size.</p>
<p>For example, Lilly Pond (mentionedthe Pointhe fish! above) is fished just about every warm day of the year, and the Parks Department sponsors at least one "free fishing" day each spring. Most of the people I have observed fishing this pond early in the year take only the biggest 'gills and throw back the smallies. By June I am hard pressed to find a Bluegill of more than five inches in length.</p>
<p>On the other extreme, there is our retention pond at home. I was told by neighboris that only one teenager and another man on the opposite side of the pond from us fishes it, and not too often, at that. Then came my wife and me. During our first year here (2018) I fished the pond nearly every day, but ate only three or four fish per week from it. My wife doesn't eat "real fish."</p>
<p>Now, with five people fishing the pond about once per week and my fishing it every day, what should my "limit" be? Should I start keeping more of the 6" to 9"-ers? That would leave most of the bigger ones in there to reproduce.</p>
<p>I love Bluegill so much, I could eat them every day. I would love an excuse to eat more. Any thoughts? </p>
<p></p> Entertaining as well as infor…tag:bigbluegill.ning.com,2018-10-09:2036984:Comment:7663772018-10-09T13:31:23.827ZSlip Sinkerhttps://bigbluegill.ning.com/profile/SlipSinker
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: Consolas;">Entertaining as well as informative video on conservative b.gill harvesting.</span></b></span></p>
<p><iframe width="475" height="267" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/a8kdX7nJsWY?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: Consolas;">Entertaining as well as informative video on conservative b.gill harvesting.</span></b></span></p>
<p><iframe width="475" height="267" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/a8kdX7nJsWY?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</p> thanks for an interesting readtag:bigbluegill.ning.com,2018-07-26:2036984:Comment:7627132018-07-26T16:09:32.636ZBasil Larioshttps://bigbluegill.ning.com/profile/BasilLarios
<p>thanks for an interesting read</p>
<p>thanks for an interesting read</p> Very good article Tracy… than…tag:bigbluegill.ning.com,2018-02-23:2036984:Comment:7464952018-02-23T17:18:51.168ZSlip Sinkerhttps://bigbluegill.ning.com/profile/SlipSinker
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; margin-left: .5in; line-height: normal;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: windowtext;">Very good article Tracy… thanks for sharing… a lot of parallel thinking nowadays when it comes to B.Gill management. I particularly like…</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; margin-left: .5in; line-height: normal;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: windowtext;">Very good article Tracy… thanks for sharing… a lot of parallel thinking nowadays when it comes to B.Gill management. I particularly like this paragraph from the article…</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; margin-left: 1.0in; line-height: normal;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Open Sans','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: windowtext;">The likely key to why reduced harvest resulted in larger bluegills was not that they survived to live longer and grow larger, but because they didn’t begin reproducing until they reached a larger size. Sexually mature fish channel a lot of energy into developing gonads and building and guarding nests, which leaves less energy for body (somatic) growth. By delaying sexual maturity until reaching a larger size, the fish can grow faster because energy is not shunted to reproduction. Jacobson found that average length at maturity of male bluegill increased from 6 inches before the 10-fish regulation to 6½ to 7 inches four years after the regulation was implemented. During the same time period, average length at maturity stayed at 6 inches in the reference lakes with 30-fish limits.</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt; font-family: 'Open Sans','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: windowtext;"><br/> <br/> Read more: <a href="http://www.in-fisherman.com/panfish/bluegill/managing-bluegills/#ixzz56yVzHfn2"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; color: #003399;">http://www.in-fisherman.com/panfish/bluegill/managing-bluegills/#ixzz56yVzHfn2</span></a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; margin-left: .5in; line-height: normal;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: windowtext;">So here’s where I think it get’s dicey… to the point that many of us BBG’ers might disagree with one another particularly members North and South…but to me it makes sense considering the years of aquarium experience breeding tropical fish, mainly cichlids…. Cichlids spawn and act very closely to the native Lepomis.</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; margin-left: .5in; line-height: normal;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: windowtext;">raising the temp in the aquarium speeds up the growth and life cycle of the fish. Spawning, hatching and raising the cichlids I would then cull out the smaller specimens and would keep the larger, beautiful and more robust specimens for my own stock. In just a couple years effort I would a nice lineage of fish.</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; margin-left: .5in; line-height: normal;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: windowtext;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now in southern states pertaining to B.Gill growth rate to attain 10 inches might be achieved in just a few short years while in northern tier states it takes 8-10 years to reach a trophy size of 10”… like in my neighborhood. Here is where the damage is really noticed at a quicker pace… take out the big bulls and it takes a few years to replace and genetically steps down the quality sized future fish. I’m even excluding the little satellite male B.Gills situation in the theorem which makes it significantly worse.</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; margin-left: .5in; line-height: normal;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: windowtext;">So given the success us aquarists used through the years to produce better quality fish by culling the smaller specimens… wouldn’t it work on any body of water on any species North or South? As time and experience go on it only makes more sense to me. Slot limits and lower limits work!</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; margin-left: 1.0in; line-height: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the smaller fish are taken care of by LMB, which on the last trap net study yielded 45 pounds per acre. thats a lot of bluegill culling bass.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; margin-left: .5in; line-height: normal;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: windowtext;">Wow, 14.5 inch RES and B.Gills … that’s incredible! With that nice LMB population really helps.</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; margin-left: 1.0in; line-height: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">there are a couple of things that worry me though, such as guides and other fisherman keeping 500 fish an outing (Garry Mason is about the only guide that i know of that imposed a limit on his boat), and the silver carp problem</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; margin-left: .5in; line-height: normal;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: windowtext;"> It is concerning about the carp population… a BOW only supports so many fish per acre no matter what species and they take up a lot of room.</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; margin-left: .5in; line-height: normal;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.5pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: windowtext;">I've</span> <i><span style="font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: windowtext;">seen some nice vids from your neighborhood actually showing how they coral and net the carp in huge quantities. They are an ongoing problem but with better harvesting techniques they might be just kept under control. There is an actual market for them where they are prepared into fish cakes… interesting none the less.</span></i></b></p> here is another article that…tag:bigbluegill.ning.com,2018-02-13:2036984:Comment:7456752018-02-13T03:06:32.669Ztracy willishttps://bigbluegill.ning.com/profile/tracywillis
<p>here is another article that explains what some of you guys have been discussing. very good article.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.in-fisherman.com/panfish/bluegill/managing-bluegills/" target="_blank">http://www.in-fisherman.com/panfish/bluegill/managing-bluegills/</a></p>
<p>on KY lake where i fish, it is vast with 2,000 miles of bay studded shoreline, we do have big bluegills and shellcrackers but not everybody catches those sizes. the smaller fish are taken care of by LMB, which on the…</p>
<p>here is another article that explains what some of you guys have been discussing. very good article.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.in-fisherman.com/panfish/bluegill/managing-bluegills/" target="_blank">http://www.in-fisherman.com/panfish/bluegill/managing-bluegills/</a></p>
<p>on KY lake where i fish, it is vast with 2,000 miles of bay studded shoreline, we do have big bluegills and shellcrackers but not everybody catches those sizes. the smaller fish are taken care of by LMB, which on the last trap net study yielded 45 pounds per acre. thats a lot of bluegill culling bass. the sheer size of the lake makes a lot of places for fish to hide. the TARP entries show 170 bluegill at 10” or larger and 250 entries for shellcracker at 11” and larger. what is interesting is that both species largest entry is right at 14.5”. that kind of tells me that bluegill in this lake are doing as well as shellcracker, which have a 20 per person limit. there is no limit on bluegill.</p>
<p>there are a couple of things that worry me though, such as guides and other fisherman keeping 500 fish an outing (Garry Mason is about the only guide that i know of that imposed a limit on his boat), and the silver carp problem. folks here have always been taught that if you release the females then the bluegills will be a renewable resource, ive always had my doubts about that line of thinking. last year i read a fishing report of one of the guides, that was boasting about catching those high number of bluegills the year before, having trouble finding the bigger bluegill that year.</p>
<p>the same holds true on KY lake as it does on Slip Sinker’s lake, even without a noticeable thermocline on KY lake. the bigger fish spawn first and early and when they are done they head for the hard bottom and shell beds on humps off the old river channel, similar to ledge fishing for bass. hopefully, this post spawn ritual will ensure many years of good bluegill fishing on Ky lake.</p>
<p></p> That's what I take from it, B…tag:bigbluegill.ning.com,2017-10-01:2036984:Comment:7382802017-10-01T13:28:39.573ZBruce Tomasellihttps://bigbluegill.ning.com/profile/BruceTomaselli
<p>That's what I take from it, Brian, but hopefully, Slip or another expert will confirm it. The way I understand it is that if you constantly cull the biggest spawners, the size of those will keep getting smaller, and will produce smaller gills.</p>
<p>That's what I take from it, Brian, but hopefully, Slip or another expert will confirm it. The way I understand it is that if you constantly cull the biggest spawners, the size of those will keep getting smaller, and will produce smaller gills.</p> So all in all. If i want to h…tag:bigbluegill.ning.com,2017-10-01:2036984:Comment:7381772017-10-01T01:04:28.878ZBrian N.https://bigbluegill.ning.com/profile/BrianN
<p>So all in all. If i want to have the most the most potential from my personal pond it would be more optimal to release the 9- 10 inch bluegill i catch and keep the 7 to 8 inchers if i decide to keep any? It makes sense actually. I thought taking out the bigger bluegill would get the smaller ones to fill those shoes of the larger bg's, but i guess has the opposite effect</p>
<p>So all in all. If i want to have the most the most potential from my personal pond it would be more optimal to release the 9- 10 inch bluegill i catch and keep the 7 to 8 inchers if i decide to keep any? It makes sense actually. I thought taking out the bigger bluegill would get the smaller ones to fill those shoes of the larger bg's, but i guess has the opposite effect</p> Fun journey ahead indeed Sli…tag:bigbluegill.ning.com,2017-07-19:2036984:Comment:7290602017-07-19T08:10:23.928ZDuane R. Morganhttps://bigbluegill.ning.com/profile/DuaneRMorgan
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<p>Fun journey ahead indeed Slip Sinker. I agree there should and may well be large bluegills in Ray Roberts lake. However, the more commonly sought after white bass and crappie, using the vertical jigging method in deeper waters has yielded no mention of any large gills. I have read or heard somewhere that larger bluegills may school beneath crappie in deeper water, and they will take the larger lures especially when tipped with live baits. But again, no mention of any occasional big…</p>
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<p>Fun journey ahead indeed Slip Sinker. I agree there should and may well be large bluegills in Ray Roberts lake. However, the more commonly sought after white bass and crappie, using the vertical jigging method in deeper waters has yielded no mention of any large gills. I have read or heard somewhere that larger bluegills may school beneath crappie in deeper water, and they will take the larger lures especially when tipped with live baits. But again, no mention of any occasional big bluegill being caught with minnow tipped jigs or spoons. I will continue making inquires and hopefully be engaged by September with my own searcch.</p>